Cybersecurity Act of 2009 Proposes Certification for IAS Professionals
Senators, John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), introduced a bill titled the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. The bill covers a range of issues relating to cybersecurity, including the vulnerability of SCADA systems — particularly the power grid.
Interestingly, much of the bill’s coverage is focused on the idea that President Obama would be given the right to "shut off" the Internet, which is a bit of an exaggeration. The bill actually allows the President to declare an emergency and remove federal and critical infrastructure assets from the Internet, as a protective response to an attack. The bill’s controversy comes in the failure to clearly define critical infrastructure.
The portion of the bill that should interest information security professionals, but has received little attention, is the requirement that all information security professionals who would work with these undefined federal and critical infrastructure assets, would need certification by the federal government. The details of requirements needed to obtain or maintain this certification is yet to be determined.
I encourage you to read the bill and share your thoughts on the content.
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